


Heavy lies the crowned head.

by TayBartlett9000



Category: British Royalty RPF, The Crown (TV)
Genre: Britain, Crown, Duty, Empire, England - Freeform, Gen, Grief, Loyalty, Queen - Freeform, Queen Mary, Responsibility, Royalty, powr, very short fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-10-16 01:47:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17540348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TayBartlett9000/pseuds/TayBartlett9000
Summary: Elizabeth is  shown precisely what being queen will mean.





	Heavy lies the crowned head.

Elizabeth didn’t want to think about the funeral.  Neither did she wish to dwell too much upon  death itself, though she knew all-too well  what death meant  to those left behind. Too many  people had lost their lives during the  war and some of those lives had been  innixtricably linked with her own.

But in some  more naïve corner of Elizabeth’s mind, she had never dreamed  that death would strike so close to home. Never before had she felt trapped in the grip of such overwhelming despair. But Elizabeth couldn’t grieve. She had neither the time nor the privilege. Too many duties were  required of her. Too many people needed her to perform this task or other and she found herself lost in a sea  of confusion as  she took on the role that she had been most ill-prepared for.

She had to get over the  initial shock  fairly quickly. Her mother’s kisses, Margaret’s bouts of anguished sobs and people bowing to her when they came into contact with her had been difficult to get used to and deal with, but she had to. Elizabeth had no choice. She was the queen now. Her father had left her a great  gift and an even greater burden. He had left her the crown.

Her grandmother’s letter  had brought home to her the very real significance of the role she was about to take on – a role that she would be expected to perform until the end of her own days. Queen Mary  of Teck had forwarned her of the battle that would forever rage inside Elizabeth’s heart as Elizabeth Mountbatten and Elizabeth Regina  faught  for presidence. Indeed, she was  experiencing such frustration now. Philip’s  needs and wishes were clashing with the needs and expectations of  her ministers and her people and she was  unsure of  how she would deal with it all.

If Elizabeth  required one more piece of information to  affirm her status as queen of  Britain in her own mind, it was the sight of her stately grandmother bowing to her.

Queen Mary had rarely been seen to bow to anyone. She was a proud woman, graceful,   elligant and strangely  aloof and stand-offish. But now she was bowing before her twenty five yearold granddaughter who she had known since she was born. Elizabeth found this to be a strange happening, and she faught the urge to back away. How was she supposed to deal with this?

 Despite her youth and inexperience, Queen Mary who had lived as a queen   consort and a queen mother was showing Elizabeth that she  was acknowledging her young granddaughter as queen. She had lost her   son, Albert Windsor  who had become the great King George VI and yet she was accepting his daughter as queen.

 Elizabeth felt humbled. And yet, she felt strangely at peace with the   direction her life had taken. Queen Mary’s acknowledgement of Elizabeth  as queen had cemented the thought in her own mind. She was queen. She was the queen of Britain and its empire – an empire that was dwindling but still going strong. She was now the most important person in Britain and she knew at once that with that immence power, came immence responsibilities. Queen  Mary, her own dear mother and her much loved father had taught her much over the years. They  had shown her how  a ruler should govern and she was determined to do her best. Elizabeth would do as queen Mary had suggested. She would ensure that the  crown won, that the crown would always win. She would do her  duty well.


End file.
